Raymon Reifer bowled with the kind of passion and intensity for the President’s XI yesterday to indicate the selectors may have missed a trick in leaving him out of the West Indies squad of 13 for the opening Test against England next week.
The strongly-built left-arm seamer delivered 13 probing overs that earned him the scalps of Keaton Jennings, Johnny Bairstow and Jos Buttler on a sun-baked afternoon at the 3Ws Oval before a good crowd that included former West Indies all-rounder John Shepherd and ex-England captain Michael Atherton.
No question about it, this was England’s day with the visitors piling on 379 all out with Bairstow slamming 98 and Surrey opener Rory Burns cracking 68. But the President’s XI would have been heartened with the effort of the 27-year-old Reifer operating in tandem with the persistent Miguel Cummins.
Both were impressive in the post-lunch session. Cummins, charging in from the pavilion end, produced a fine spell. He found Moeen Ali’s edge only to see Jermaine Blackwood spill the catch at slip after juggling with it twice. Not to be denied, Cummins induced a loose drive from the same batsman, the ball flying to Chemar Holder at backward point. (MK)
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